Where Mortimer brainstorms for his 'Heroquest' next.

[Once was Mortimer]

For combat I originally planned on using D6's, but had a thought for unique dice I posted in this thread.

http://forum.yeoldeinn.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3289

I wanted to keep it to being very much in the Heroquest feel, but felt I could add a few little differences here and there and build mechanics around them. Otherwise combat works very much like in heroquest, a character must be in an adjacent space to attack in hand-to-hand unless they have a pole-arm with reach. Ranged attacks are opposite and can only be used if an opponent isn't adjacent.

This is where things do deviate more as Might and Agility come into play.

I have a few avenues I'm debating on this.

As Might increases it grants a bonus to hand-to-hand, and Agility gives bonus to ranged attacks ... high agility also gives opponents a penalty reducing their attack dice down to a minimum of 1. Weapons have a dice value like in HQ and the bonus is added ontop of that.




Most heroes don't start out having a bonus, but get them as they gain experience.

This was an alternative idea I had, which sort of based off the Advanced Heroquest way of determining how powerful a weapon was (Strength = Might in this case) where you cross reference the weapon against your characters Might.



The last idea was that characters rolled their 'Might' as their attack dice and added bonuses or penalties for different weapons (E.g. Unarmed -2, Dagger -1, Short Sword 0, Broad Sword +1, Battle Axe +2)

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I'm not a fan of different dice, roll modifiers are soooo much better.

Or in some cases rolling an additional die and discarding the lowest.

I have scrapped the Heroes rolling for movement a long time ago, but I do occasionally wonder whether I should restore at least one die, perhaps D6+6 for all but I would need to change Monster movement (still fixed values though - no point changing both). That said I think it is important to distinguish between the Heroes normal movement in the dungeon, slow careful cautious (irrespective to how fast you can run the 100m or how much armour you are wearing) and their movement in emergencies - such as fleeing from a rolling boulder!

Update 21/11/16; I have restored the movement dice that I ditched for being 'unrealistic' before eventually realising the error of my ways, the movement dice are a simple and effective method of determining initiative and as you can see from my house rules (link in my signature) can be utilised to cover other situations also.

[Once was Mortimer]

Critical Hits
This is another new element to combat in my game. One side of the battle dice has what I imagine a 'shattered skull' (or a roll of 6 on a regular D6). This results in a critical hit when attacking. How each works depends on the weapon being used, so far I have 3 main 'mundane' weapon effects.

Piercing (Daggers, Spears, Arrows, etc): When for each crit rolled with a piercing weapon your opponent must reduce the amount of defend dice they roll by one, this may ultimately mean they may not defend at all! Representing these weapons piercing through tough hides and armour.

Bludgeoning (Clubs, Maces, Warhammers, etc): This one still has some kinks to work out. My idea so far, for each crit rolled with a bludgeoning weapon a token is placed next to your opponent. If the max number of tokens is equal to or greater than their might they are 'stunned' and miss their next turn (you remove all tokens and start again). On each of their turns they remove one token from the stack (Seems abit fiddly, but I didn't want to say one crit = automatic stun, that seemed to powerful).

Cleaving/Slicing (Axes, Halberds/Swords, etc): For each crit scored with one of these weapons you get to roll an extra die and add the result to your total attack (but you don't get to roll yet again if you score any crits on this second roll). E.G. So with 4 attack dice, you score 2 hits, 1 miss and 1 crit, you can roll another attack die and add that to the 3 hits you have so far (Crits count as hits in addition to their extra effect).

I was debating whether I should separate swords and axes into having to types of critical hits, the above felt right for the cleaving power of a battle axe, but I kind of felt I'd like something different for swords, to give weapons more individuality, but I've yet to think of something different.

Other than that I was pondering magical crits for things like fire, ice and lightning ... although I'm debating just defaulting them to the above (Fire=Cleaving e.g. burning, Ice=Bludgeoning e.g. numbing, Lightning=Piercing e.g. .... conducting?)

[Once was Mortimer]

Now, getting way ahead of myself.

70 miniature figures
30 miniature furniture

To much for a single boxset?

[knightkrawler]

I think if you want quality in 28mm-32mm scale, then that's way too much.
It would cost around 250 dollares, I'd estimate.

[Once was Mortimer]

Heh, at anyrate its something more to think about if I ever get the rules setup.

[knightkrawler]

Descent, 1st ed. had like 100 minis, but smaller in scale, non-heroic, and made from cheap-ass rubber, and it cost 100 bucks.
Dungeons & Dragons, Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, Legend of Drizzt: 42 minis each, even cheaper-ass rubber, 30mm scale, 65 bucks.
Both didn't have 3D-furniture, but a lot of cardboard.
When Dungeon Saga from Mantic arrives in retail, you can draw another healthy comparison. Hard plastic minis and furniture. Mantic is not renowned for high quality of material or casting.

[Once was Mortimer]

Magic

Magic is still being somewhat decided on, the play and discard mechanic of heroquest is out though.

Generally spellcasting characters (Mage and Elf for now) take a number of mana tokens at the beginning of the game. Either a number equal to their Will or their Will + D6. Each spell will have a mana value on the card that denotes how many mana tokens a player has to ante-up when they cast it, generally ranging from 1 mana to 3 (with maybe 4 and 5 being included for expansions as 'super spells').

I think what will determine the two above methods is if I introduce some form of mana recovery. I'd like to avoid a 'per turn' recovery or a 'Meditate' action that first came to mind, because this would just mean spellcasters would wait around after each spell ... unless there was some risk to that (either waiting in one place or delaying the completion of a quest). Another thought was that a spellcaster could 'draw' mana from a newly discovered room or perhaps from defeating monsters (That felt more like something I'd do with a Necromancer type character, gain mana from stealing life).

Another idea was that one could cast spells without mana, but would have to sacrifice that spell card for that quest. Or alternatively sacrifice a number of life points equal to the mana cost needed to cast it.

Finally, like Might and Agility, Will also provides a bonus to your abilities. Most cards will in a similar way to Heroquest be along the lines of "Fireball: Roll two dice in attack" but will also usually go onto say "Fireball: Roll two dice plus your magic bonus in attack"



One last thing, I was undecided on. Having multiple magic types like the four elements, or having a single magic deck that just included them all. The system of picking 3 spell types for the wizard and 1 for the elf although really simple and cool, I think doesn't quite work if you have more and more additional spell cards being added.

When Dungeon Saga from Mantic arrives in retail, you can draw another healthy comparison. Hard plastic minis and furniture. Mantic is not renowned for high quality of material or casting.

I've been seeing several sets being auctioned off lately for around $100US/NZ (despite exchange rates) ... not sure if that is indicative of the final price.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I think you have covered the flaws of the HQ magic style and the Mana one also, may I suggest an alternative;

Each spell has a difficulty or casting number (2-6 generally if you are using a single die or 3-12 if you are using two dice*), you roll a die or two, if equal to or greater than you cast the spell successfully if failed then you suffer damage by rolling a number of combat dice equal to the pips that you rolled less than you needed.

Skills, abilities and artefacts can reduce the casting number, allow you to roll an extra die and discard the lowest or similar, or can boost your defensive roll.

*Certain powerful spells may have a higher number but require extra preparations such a magic circle or group magic or artefacts etc

I'm even thinking of a duel between casters...both roll a die, lowest suffers damage